The Rise and Fall of the Artificial Breast
Kelly A. desperately wanted to be beautiful; “I like nothing about my body,” she lamented in front of FOX’s The Swan camera crew, pulling and pinching at her skin. Her perceived ugliness had invaded every part of her life; to Kelly, her looks were holding her back from becoming the sexy, confident woman she always imagined being. Unlike most women who are unsatisfied with their bodies, Kelly had the opportunity to pick from a smorgäsbord of plastic surgery procedures – a way to boost her self-esteem by making her beautiful on the outside. As anyone who watched the controversial show might remember, the new body parts she was most proud of were her gigantic breast implants. “Look at my boobies!” she squealed on reveal day (“Premiere”). But how long will her elation last? Cosmetic surgeons have been touting the psychological and emotional benefits of their services for years, but recent studies have revealed that their claims are shaky at best. Surgeons run the risk of exacerbating a condition called body dysmorphic disorder with every cosmetic procedure they perform; however, breast augmentation is linked to more suicides than even other plastic surgeries. The complications that eventually result from breast implants and the reasons women choose them combine to create more emotional problems than they are purported to solve.
Plastic surgery, including breast augmentation, has become more and more prevalent in mainstream society, so much so that even the Mona Lisa is considering an extreme makeover. The procedure for breast augmentation is not new, though the long-term studies are. As experienced plastic surgeon Dr. Paula Moynahan demonstrates, French dentist Pierre Fauchard first attempted crude augmentation mammaplasty in the 1500s – implanting paraffin. Modern breast augmentation evolved in the 1960s, using materials like plastic foam and Teflon (113-4). Silicone breast implants followed soon after, with the Food and Drug Administration stepping in to referee in 1976 (Angell 2). Silicone-filled implants came under suspicion of causing cancers and autoimmune diseases; they were banned from all but experimental implantation in 1992 (Angell 3). The new implant of choice is a silicone sac that is pumped full of sterile saline solution after it is inserted into the patient.
These saline implants can be inserted in three different ways, but the end result is basically the same: fuller-looking breasts. Most women are initially happy with their procedure for the first few months or years if it is performed correctly, maybe noticing cold, numbness or pain which can interfere with daily activity, but the implants look great (“How You’ll Look” 1). Although breast implants are usually sold as permanent devices, the truth is the quality of the implant only deteriorates over time. Eventually all augmentation mammaplasty patients are faced with nasty-sounding disorders like capsular contracture, extrusion, wrinkling, tissue atrophy, and necrosis (US FDA 1, 3).
The United States Food and Drug Administration has published a “Breast Implant Risks Brochure” detailing many of the common implant malfunctions. Capsular contracture is a relatively common condition characterized by scar tissue tightening around the implant a few years after the surgery. The results are hard, distorted breasts that can be very painful. Surgeons can try to remove the tissue or even replace the implant, but the condition may return. If the tissue around a woman’s implants is weak or the surgical incisions do not heal correctly, the implant might actually begin to work its way out of the skin, a serious condition called extrusion requiring surgery that can result in horrific scars. Sometimes just the sheer presence of implants can cause normal breast tissue to atrophy, or dissolve, during the time they are implanted or after they are removed. Necrosis occurs when the tissue around an implant dies completely (1-3).
When faced with complications like this, most women should feel lucky if they only experience eventual deflation. Yet, even if nothing else goes wrong with the implant during or after surgery, “normal aging of the implant” causes the saline or silicone-filled sac to eventually rupture, leaking its contents into the woman’s body (US FDA 2). This is particularly worrisome with silicone implants because instead of being absorbed like saline, the filling migrates out of the breast to create hard little lumps of silicone in the chest cavity. After the rupture of either type of implant, the patient must pay for another surgery to have the offending implant removed, and if she does not also replace it, her stretched-out breasts will be sagging and deformed.
With a typical breast implantation costing around $6000, all those new surgeries just might not be possible for many women, so their physical and emotional condition worsens. Ilena Rosenthal, author of Breast Implants: The Myths, The Facts, The Women, contends that the pain and depression caused by this inability to fix what is wrong with them, can lead to suicide (1). The study that opened the debate over the implant-suicide connection was published last year by a group of five acclaimed European researchers led by V. C. M. Koot of the Netherlands. They looked at 3,521 Swedish women who had received breast implants at safe hospitals for purely cosmetic reasons, not to replace what was lost to breast cancer. Factoring in the normal suicide rate for Swedish women of the same age, the researchers were surprised to find that “Fifteen women committed suicide, compared with 5.2 expected deaths” (Koot et al 1-2). According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 280,401 women in the United States received breast augmentation in 2003 (“A Guide” 1), if Koot el al’s findings hold up in larger groups around the world, 1,195 of those women might eventually take their own lives!
To their credit, responsible plastic surgery journals have been trying to combat this problem by telling their readers to perform more thorough screenings for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also known as body dysmorphobia. According to the Postgraduate Medical Journal, body dysmorphic disorder is a serious psychological condition similar to obsessive compulsive disorder; sufferers becomes obsessed with a real or imagined defect in their appearance. This obsession can become so severe that it limits their daily functions or proves dangerous as they try to alter their bodies at home. Plastic surgery cannot solve this disorder, as after surgery the patient simply obsesses about a new part of their body (Veale 1-3). Michael Jackson is a prime, though unconfirmed, public example of the extremes this disorder can lead people to if they have enough money to pay for the surgeries they want. Only his doctor knows how many procedures the singer has subjected himself to, but it is evident that he cannot be happy with his appearance as he always comes back for more.
Though only counseling and medication can correct their psychological problems, people with BDD have unrealistic expectations from cosmetic procedures, and depression can worsen when they realize it has not solved all their anxieties. According to Cosmetic Surgery Times, plastic surgeons should look out for warning signs in their patients, such as a “belief that surgery will correct degenerated relationships [,] belief that surgery will bolster workplace status […] extreme preoccupation with particular area of body [or] dissatisfaction with previous surgeries” (Tackla 3). Unfortunately, for every honest surgeon unwilling to feed a hungry psychological disorder, there is another ready to throw common sense in the wind for a profit.
But even if a psychiatric defect were the reason for the high suicide rate of women with false breasts, as Koot et al suggests (2), it can not explain away what American researcher L. A. Brinton discovered in a government study. Although people with BDD get all types of elective surgery, Brinton found that women with breast implants were more likely than other plastic surgery patients to commit suicide – 50% more likely (Brinton 1). However, the debate rages on as it is revealed that American breast augmentation patients tend to have what can be described as a more risky lifestyle than American women who do not opt for the procedure: they “drank more alcohol, got pregnant at a younger age, were more likely to use contraceptives and hair dyes and had more sexual partners” (Cook 1). All of these factors could suggest that women who get breast implants typically have other things in their lives that could lead to depression or suicide. Apparently, the reason for the implant-suicide connection is complex, lying somewhere between the reasons women get implants and the physical problems caused by the sacs of fluid themselves.
Houston dentist Clara Harris wanted to end her husband’s cheating. She planned to get fit, get tan, get liposucked, get bigger breasts, and get her husband back (Spragins 1). As most rational people would suspect, such superficial expectations did not stop her husband’s affair, so she ran him over with her Mercedes. As extreme as the case may be, many women go under the knife for breast augmentation for many of the same reasons. Dr. David Sarwer, a psychologist who studies the impact of cosmetic surgery on patients says on occasion he is “worried about patients who have the expectation that plastic surgery is going to lead to a Cinderella-like change in their lives, […] often [they] set themselves up for disappointment” (Healy 2). These unrealistic expectations are neither rare nor inexplicable. The general perception of elective surgery from makeover shows and surgeon’s advertisements is that the physical change on the outside will ultimately create a new, happier and more desirable person on the inside. This idea is so pervasive that a Manhattan surgeon reports “one husband asked him to make his wife look really good so that when he divorced her she’d remarry quickly and the alimony would be minimized” (Spragins 2). After all the hype, a woman might feel guilty if she experiences a moment of sadness or frustration post-surgery.
While it is touted as a self-esteem booster, Ronald Wheland, a former president of the American Academy of Dermatology cautions that “[self-esteem] should not be the primary goal” of cosmetic surgery (Tackla 2). But the number of American women electing augmentation mammaplasty has increased “147% over the last five years” (“A Guide” 1) and shows like Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and I Want a Famous Face routinely cite self-esteem as the reason for radical surgery. Clearly, there is a discrepancy between what responsible plastic surgeons say and the patients they accept.
Even the few women who receive breast implants with realistic expectations may be unprepared for other social consequences. According to breastimplantinfo.org, a non-profit group designed to educate women about mammaplasty, women who elect breast reduction are usually delighted by the fact that their breasts no longer rob men’s attention away from normal conversations. Women who choose augmentation may experience the opposite problem, being uncomfortable with the way their larger breasts attract admiring eyes (“How You’ll Look” 1). The happy, confident person a woman expected herself to be instead becomes self-conscious and uneasy in social situations. And once the implants are in and the skin is stretched, it is very difficult to remove them and still have normal-looking breasts. The devices may be marketed as permanent, although surgeons and manufacturers fail to clarify; the implants are temporary but the scars are forever.
Breast augmentation is becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary American society, but glowing advertisements of the surgery overshadow the truth about the physical and psychological risks. Capsular contracture and deflation, along with other less common complications, are ignored by the public since they occur so long after the initial surgery. The high rate of suicide is drowned by accolades of the silicone sacs of saline self-esteem. Though some contestants on reality make-over shows obsess about their bodies to the point of possibly exhibiting body dysmorphic disorder, it is hardly mentioned by mainstream media outlets. If truly, “[self-esteem] should not be the primary goal” of cosmetic surgery as Wheland claims (Tackla 2), no other rational reasons exist for an emotionally stable woman with healthy breasts to undergo such a risky procedure with long-term consequences. The sooner women realize that as years pass the implants she chose for beauty will become uglier and uglier, the sooner this alarming trend can be stopped. Doctors have a responsibility to put the well-being of the patient above their search for profit – that includes fully informing the patient about the inevitable failure of the devices and excluding prospective patients with unrealistic expectations.
“A Guide to Breast Augmentation and Breast Implants Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Information Resource.” Just Breast Implants. 3 June 2004. http://www..
Angell, Marcia. “Evaluating the Health Risks of Breast Implants: The Interplay of Medical Science, the Law, and Public Opinion.” The New England Journal of Medicine 334 (1996): 1513-8. 6 June 1996. 11 May 2004. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/334/23/1513?ijkey=672cf8b818e35fb08bd4b209a5fc2bcbef32512e&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha.
Plastic surgery, including breast augmentation, has become more and more prevalent in mainstream society, so much so that even the Mona Lisa is considering an extreme makeover. The procedure for breast augmentation is not new, though the long-term studies are. As experienced plastic surgeon Dr. Paula Moynahan demonstrates, French dentist Pierre Fauchard first attempted crude augmentation mammaplasty in the 1500s – implanting paraffin. Modern breast augmentation evolved in the 1960s, using materials like plastic foam and Teflon (113-4). Silicone breast implants followed soon after, with the Food and Drug Administration stepping in to referee in 1976 (Angell 2). Silicone-filled implants came under suspicion of causing cancers and autoimmune diseases; they were banned from all but experimental implantation in 1992 (Angell 3). The new implant of choice is a silicone sac that is pumped full of sterile saline solution after it is inserted into the patient.
These saline implants can be inserted in three different ways, but the end result is basically the same: fuller-looking breasts. Most women are initially happy with their procedure for the first few months or years if it is performed correctly, maybe noticing cold, numbness or pain which can interfere with daily activity, but the implants look great (“How You’ll Look” 1). Although breast implants are usually sold as permanent devices, the truth is the quality of the implant only deteriorates over time. Eventually all augmentation mammaplasty patients are faced with nasty-sounding disorders like capsular contracture, extrusion, wrinkling, tissue atrophy, and necrosis (US FDA 1, 3).
The United States Food and Drug Administration has published a “Breast Implant Risks Brochure” detailing many of the common implant malfunctions. Capsular contracture is a relatively common condition characterized by scar tissue tightening around the implant a few years after the surgery. The results are hard, distorted breasts that can be very painful. Surgeons can try to remove the tissue or even replace the implant, but the condition may return. If the tissue around a woman’s implants is weak or the surgical incisions do not heal correctly, the implant might actually begin to work its way out of the skin, a serious condition called extrusion requiring surgery that can result in horrific scars. Sometimes just the sheer presence of implants can cause normal breast tissue to atrophy, or dissolve, during the time they are implanted or after they are removed. Necrosis occurs when the tissue around an implant dies completely (1-3).
When faced with complications like this, most women should feel lucky if they only experience eventual deflation. Yet, even if nothing else goes wrong with the implant during or after surgery, “normal aging of the implant” causes the saline or silicone-filled sac to eventually rupture, leaking its contents into the woman’s body (US FDA 2). This is particularly worrisome with silicone implants because instead of being absorbed like saline, the filling migrates out of the breast to create hard little lumps of silicone in the chest cavity. After the rupture of either type of implant, the patient must pay for another surgery to have the offending implant removed, and if she does not also replace it, her stretched-out breasts will be sagging and deformed.
With a typical breast implantation costing around $6000, all those new surgeries just might not be possible for many women, so their physical and emotional condition worsens. Ilena Rosenthal, author of Breast Implants: The Myths, The Facts, The Women, contends that the pain and depression caused by this inability to fix what is wrong with them, can lead to suicide (1). The study that opened the debate over the implant-suicide connection was published last year by a group of five acclaimed European researchers led by V. C. M. Koot of the Netherlands. They looked at 3,521 Swedish women who had received breast implants at safe hospitals for purely cosmetic reasons, not to replace what was lost to breast cancer. Factoring in the normal suicide rate for Swedish women of the same age, the researchers were surprised to find that “Fifteen women committed suicide, compared with 5.2 expected deaths” (Koot et al 1-2). According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 280,401 women in the United States received breast augmentation in 2003 (“A Guide” 1), if Koot el al’s findings hold up in larger groups around the world, 1,195 of those women might eventually take their own lives!
To their credit, responsible plastic surgery journals have been trying to combat this problem by telling their readers to perform more thorough screenings for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also known as body dysmorphobia. According to the Postgraduate Medical Journal, body dysmorphic disorder is a serious psychological condition similar to obsessive compulsive disorder; sufferers becomes obsessed with a real or imagined defect in their appearance. This obsession can become so severe that it limits their daily functions or proves dangerous as they try to alter their bodies at home. Plastic surgery cannot solve this disorder, as after surgery the patient simply obsesses about a new part of their body (Veale 1-3). Michael Jackson is a prime, though unconfirmed, public example of the extremes this disorder can lead people to if they have enough money to pay for the surgeries they want. Only his doctor knows how many procedures the singer has subjected himself to, but it is evident that he cannot be happy with his appearance as he always comes back for more.
Though only counseling and medication can correct their psychological problems, people with BDD have unrealistic expectations from cosmetic procedures, and depression can worsen when they realize it has not solved all their anxieties. According to Cosmetic Surgery Times, plastic surgeons should look out for warning signs in their patients, such as a “belief that surgery will correct degenerated relationships [,] belief that surgery will bolster workplace status […] extreme preoccupation with particular area of body [or] dissatisfaction with previous surgeries” (Tackla 3). Unfortunately, for every honest surgeon unwilling to feed a hungry psychological disorder, there is another ready to throw common sense in the wind for a profit.
But even if a psychiatric defect were the reason for the high suicide rate of women with false breasts, as Koot et al suggests (2), it can not explain away what American researcher L. A. Brinton discovered in a government study. Although people with BDD get all types of elective surgery, Brinton found that women with breast implants were more likely than other plastic surgery patients to commit suicide – 50% more likely (Brinton 1). However, the debate rages on as it is revealed that American breast augmentation patients tend to have what can be described as a more risky lifestyle than American women who do not opt for the procedure: they “drank more alcohol, got pregnant at a younger age, were more likely to use contraceptives and hair dyes and had more sexual partners” (Cook 1). All of these factors could suggest that women who get breast implants typically have other things in their lives that could lead to depression or suicide. Apparently, the reason for the implant-suicide connection is complex, lying somewhere between the reasons women get implants and the physical problems caused by the sacs of fluid themselves.
Houston dentist Clara Harris wanted to end her husband’s cheating. She planned to get fit, get tan, get liposucked, get bigger breasts, and get her husband back (Spragins 1). As most rational people would suspect, such superficial expectations did not stop her husband’s affair, so she ran him over with her Mercedes. As extreme as the case may be, many women go under the knife for breast augmentation for many of the same reasons. Dr. David Sarwer, a psychologist who studies the impact of cosmetic surgery on patients says on occasion he is “worried about patients who have the expectation that plastic surgery is going to lead to a Cinderella-like change in their lives, […] often [they] set themselves up for disappointment” (Healy 2). These unrealistic expectations are neither rare nor inexplicable. The general perception of elective surgery from makeover shows and surgeon’s advertisements is that the physical change on the outside will ultimately create a new, happier and more desirable person on the inside. This idea is so pervasive that a Manhattan surgeon reports “one husband asked him to make his wife look really good so that when he divorced her she’d remarry quickly and the alimony would be minimized” (Spragins 2). After all the hype, a woman might feel guilty if she experiences a moment of sadness or frustration post-surgery.
While it is touted as a self-esteem booster, Ronald Wheland, a former president of the American Academy of Dermatology cautions that “[self-esteem] should not be the primary goal” of cosmetic surgery (Tackla 2). But the number of American women electing augmentation mammaplasty has increased “147% over the last five years” (“A Guide” 1) and shows like Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and I Want a Famous Face routinely cite self-esteem as the reason for radical surgery. Clearly, there is a discrepancy between what responsible plastic surgeons say and the patients they accept.
Even the few women who receive breast implants with realistic expectations may be unprepared for other social consequences. According to breastimplantinfo.org, a non-profit group designed to educate women about mammaplasty, women who elect breast reduction are usually delighted by the fact that their breasts no longer rob men’s attention away from normal conversations. Women who choose augmentation may experience the opposite problem, being uncomfortable with the way their larger breasts attract admiring eyes (“How You’ll Look” 1). The happy, confident person a woman expected herself to be instead becomes self-conscious and uneasy in social situations. And once the implants are in and the skin is stretched, it is very difficult to remove them and still have normal-looking breasts. The devices may be marketed as permanent, although surgeons and manufacturers fail to clarify; the implants are temporary but the scars are forever.
Breast augmentation is becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary American society, but glowing advertisements of the surgery overshadow the truth about the physical and psychological risks. Capsular contracture and deflation, along with other less common complications, are ignored by the public since they occur so long after the initial surgery. The high rate of suicide is drowned by accolades of the silicone sacs of saline self-esteem. Though some contestants on reality make-over shows obsess about their bodies to the point of possibly exhibiting body dysmorphic disorder, it is hardly mentioned by mainstream media outlets. If truly, “[self-esteem] should not be the primary goal” of cosmetic surgery as Wheland claims (Tackla 2), no other rational reasons exist for an emotionally stable woman with healthy breasts to undergo such a risky procedure with long-term consequences. The sooner women realize that as years pass the implants she chose for beauty will become uglier and uglier, the sooner this alarming trend can be stopped. Doctors have a responsibility to put the well-being of the patient above their search for profit – that includes fully informing the patient about the inevitable failure of the devices and excluding prospective patients with unrealistic expectations.
Works Cited
“A Guide to Breast Augmentation and Breast Implants Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Information Resource.” Just Breast Implants. 3 June 2004. http://www..
Angell, Marcia. “Evaluating the Health Risks of Breast Implants: The Interplay of Medical Science, the Law, and Public Opinion.” The New England Journal of Medicine 334 (1996): 1513-8. 6 June 1996. 11 May 2004. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/334/23/1513?ijkey=672cf8b818e35fb08bd4b209a5fc2bcbef32512e&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha.
Brinton, L. A., et al. “Mortality among Augmentation Mammoplasty Patients.” Epidemiology 12 (2001): 321-6. Abstract. PubMed. National Library of Medicine. 20 May 2004. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov.
Cook, Linda S., et al. “Characteristics of Women with and without Breast Augmentation.” The Journal of the American Medical Association. 277 (1997): 1612+. Abstract. Expanded Academic ASAP. InfoTrac. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 18 May 2004 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.
Healy, Patrick. “Nose Jobs and Implants on the Runway.” New York Times 23 Oct. 2003, late ed.: B1. ProQuest. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 15 April 2004 http://www..
“How You’ll Look and Feel.” Breastimplantinfo.org. 8 Apr. 2004. http://www..
Koot, V. C. M., et al. “Total and cause specific mortality among Swedish women with cosmetic breast implants: prospective study.” British Medical Journal 326 (2003): 527-8. bmj.com 8 March 2003. 27 Apr. 2004 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7388/527.
“Mona Lisa Visits Beverly Hills.” Funny Celebrity Pictures. 20 May 2004. http://ww.comedy-zone.net/pictures/celebs/celebrity24.htm.
Moynahan, Paula. Cosmetic Surgery for Women. New York: Crown, 1988.
“Premiere.” The Swan. Fox. KPTV. Portland, OR. 7 April 2004.
Rosenthal, Ilena. “Authors Miss Most Important Clue.” Online Posting. 14 Mar. 2003 bmj.com. 20 May 2004. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7388/.
Spragins, Ellyn. “A Makeover Can Be More Than Skin Deep.” New York Times 2 March 2003, late ed.: 3.9. ProQuest. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 22 April 2004 http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.om/proquest.
Tackla, Michelle. “Beautiful Minds? Study says Cosmetic Surgery Bolsters Happiness; Surgeons Still Wary of Psychological Profiles.” Cosmetic Surgery Times 6 (2003). Expanded Academic ASAP. InfoTrac. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 15 Apr. 2004 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.
United States. Food and Drug Administration. “Breast Implant Risks Brochure.” Center for Devices and Radiological Health. 23 Oct. 2000. 15 Apr. 2004 http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/breastimplants/breast_implant_risks_brochure.html.
Cook, Linda S., et al. “Characteristics of Women with and without Breast Augmentation.” The Journal of the American Medical Association. 277 (1997): 1612+. Abstract. Expanded Academic ASAP. InfoTrac. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 18 May 2004 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.
Healy, Patrick. “Nose Jobs and Implants on the Runway.” New York Times 23 Oct. 2003, late ed.: B1. ProQuest. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 15 April 2004 http://www..
“How You’ll Look and Feel.” Breastimplantinfo.org. 8 Apr. 2004. http://www..
Koot, V. C. M., et al. “Total and cause specific mortality among Swedish women with cosmetic breast implants: prospective study.” British Medical Journal 326 (2003): 527-8. bmj.com 8 March 2003. 27 Apr. 2004 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7388/527.
“Mona Lisa Visits Beverly Hills.” Funny Celebrity Pictures. 20 May 2004. http://ww.comedy-zone.net/pictures/celebs/celebrity24.htm.
Moynahan, Paula. Cosmetic Surgery for Women. New York: Crown, 1988.
“Premiere.” The Swan. Fox. KPTV. Portland, OR. 7 April 2004.
Rosenthal, Ilena. “Authors Miss Most Important Clue.” Online Posting. 14 Mar. 2003 bmj.com. 20 May 2004. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7388/.
Spragins, Ellyn. “A Makeover Can Be More Than Skin Deep.” New York Times 2 March 2003, late ed.: 3.9. ProQuest. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 22 April 2004 http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.om/proquest.
Tackla, Michelle. “Beautiful Minds? Study says Cosmetic Surgery Bolsters Happiness; Surgeons Still Wary of Psychological Profiles.” Cosmetic Surgery Times 6 (2003). Expanded Academic ASAP. InfoTrac. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 15 Apr. 2004 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.
United States. Food and Drug Administration. “Breast Implant Risks Brochure.” Center for Devices and Radiological Health. 23 Oct. 2000. 15 Apr. 2004 http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/breastimplants/breast_implant_risks_brochure.html.
Veale, D. “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” Postgraduate Medical Journal 80 (2004): 67-71. Health Reference Center ‑ Academic. InfoTrac. Lewis D. Cannell Library. 18 May 2004 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.
© Bethylene, 2004
posted by Bethylene at 12:51
1 Comments:
*sigh*
I wish people would just learn to be comfortable in their own skin and with their own bodies. And I also wish people would just learn to live and let live, and not disparage people because of their body type or size.
Yeah, in freakin' Utopia, maybe.
It's just so sad.
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